Hello. Anyone remember Star Blazers? That classic Anime from the 70s that details the exploits of the crew of the space battleship Yamato (Often pronounced Argo in the show.)

In the first season, Earth was slowly being destroyed by Desslock and his Gamelon Empire. They were radiating Earth slowly with rock-like Planet Bombs. At the start of the show, Earth was so badly radiated that it would be rendered lifeless and unlivable in one year's time.

Then Queen Starsha of Planet Gamelon's neighbor planet Iscandar sends a message to Earth offering a machine to reverse the effects of the planet bombs.

Now what I don't understand and what the show never made clear is why they never tried destroying or deflecting these Planet Bombs before they impacted? In one episode as the Yamato is leaving the solar system, a swarm of Planet Bombs sails by the Yamato and all the crew does is watch them. If I were commanding the Yamato, I would have positioned it on the Planet Bombs' trajectory and fired the Wave Motion Gun incinerating them.

So tell me, why didn't they deflect or destroy these Planet Bombs before they impacted?

Logged

Babe, I'm leaving. I must be on my way. The time is drawing near. The train is going. I see it in your eyes. The love beneath your tears. And I'll be lonely without you. And I'll need your love to see me through. So please me. My heart is your hands. And I'll be missing you...

I don't know; I've never seen the show. Still, I'll try to come up with something. Here it goes:

Perhaps they had been deflecting some of the bombs, but couldn't get them all. Perhaps the Earth had already passed a point of no return; perhaps it would be lifeless even if the bombs stopped. Perhaps a bit of both explanations could explain it.

If it doesn't, blame the translators; the original writers could never make a mistake like that.

I think they did. Episode 2 or 3. It split causing a big mess and only made it wide spread.

I gotta watch it again to be sure. It's been years. It's in my Netflix Q.

---Edit*

After thinking about it for a few minutes... Earth was too busy! We had war with the Gamelons at the same time the planet bombs hit, right?The sky was covered with Gamelon flag ships... it was an all out war.

If I remember correctly, the Gamelons wouldn't even let humans leave the Earth.

I think episode 4 or 5... the Yamato had to fight it's way out of the massive blockade.

I think they did. Episode 2 or 3. It split causing a big mess and only made it wide spread.

I gotta watch it again to be sure. It's been years. It's in my Netflix Q.

---Edit*

After thinking about it for a few minutes... Earth was too busy! We had war with the Gamelons at the same time the planet bombs hit, right?The sky was covered with Gamelon flag ships... it was an all out war.

If I remember correctly, the Gamelons wouldn't even let humans leave the Earth.

I think episode 4 or 5... the Yamato had to fight it's way out of the massive blockade.

Hmmm, I didn't know 1 carrier was considered a massive blockade. When they launched the Yamato, all the Gamelons sent was a single carrier with swarms of fighters ships, all of which were easily destroyed by the Yamato. If I was going to send a blockade, I would send significantly more than 1 carrier.

Logged

Babe, I'm leaving. I must be on my way. The time is drawing near. The train is going. I see it in your eyes. The love beneath your tears. And I'll be lonely without you. And I'll need your love to see me through. So please me. My heart is your hands. And I'll be missing you...

The planet bombs were encased in rock, so maybe they were hardened beyond what the main guns could penetrate. That would make sense, since there would be plenty of opportunity to shoot at them between Pluto and Earth.

The wave motion gun wasn't tested until Jupiter, and I think they were extra cautious about using it for a while after that. Also, I think its capabilities changed between series. Against the Comet Empire, it seemed they could fire a wide blast and take out a bunch of targets at once. Early on, I don't know if it would have been effective against a group of planet bombs. And I suppose with the condition Earth was in, a few more bombs wouldn't matter. Probably made more strategic sense to move forward as quickly as possible, not take any chances, and hopefully stop the bombs at their source.

I can't answer the question, but I can say that the show was, and still is, one of my favorite TV shows of all time.

Which may be why I have mixed feelings about the ongoing effort to bring it to the big screen. There are two release dates for it 2013 and 2015. That might be two release dates for the same film, or it could be two different versions--one live action and one anime--coming to the big screen. If that is the case, and there are two films released, I expect the live action to be in 2013 and the anime version to be in 2015, as it takes longer to do an animated film than most live action films.

Well, like I said, Im not 100% sure about all that, I need to watch it again... I was just trying to help out

However I'm still 80% sure about the massive blockade though... I'll check it out next week.

If I remember correctly, the carrier wasn't meant to be part of a blockade. The Gamilons had detected activity beneath the surface, and sent a ship to attack what they thought was an underground city.

Then there was a big missile fired at them, which they had to dodge.

I think the Gamilons tended to avoid Earth as much as possible, and just pelted it with bombs from Pluto. That seemed to be where the battles were taking place at the beginning. I suppose it supports the idea that the planet bombs were tough enough that they could be sent that distance and not intercepted. Earth's fleet was forced to go all the way out to the source of the bombs, which was well defended.